Eminem Calls "My Name Is" An Anti-Pop Song, Talks Life After Addiction + More (VIDEO)

(AllHipHop News) The second installment of Zane Lowe and BBC Radio One’s interview with Eminem centers around the rapper’s analysis of his career from the perspective of both a pop icon and a recovering addict.

The first song to put Eminem on the nation’s radar was “My Name Is”, his inaugural single from his 1999 debut album The Slim Shady LP. While Eminem fully comprehends the humor, he is still dumbfounded at the irony of an “anti-pop song” becoming a hit:

The whole record was tongue and cheek. I’m still doing alot of records like that to this day that are tongue and cheek. You know what I’m saying? But that record in particular was just like…it was almost like my anti-pop song, because it was my hello to the world but was my ‘f*ck you’ to the world at the same time. So I never understood when all that started happening it was like ‘holy sh*t how did that become …I guess a pop song?’

The interview turned somberly reflective for a few minutes as Zane Lowe asked Eminem about his feelings on not joining the list of recently deceased megastars such as Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson:

I’m able to be more focused now than I’ve ever been. But I’m also able to, I guess put it in perspective. But the problem is I can’t put a lot of perspective because I don’t…there was a lot…there was a lot that I don’t remember. Maybe that’s cool too. I don’t know, man. I know that there’s so many addicts in this world, and people who have problems like that that don’t make it. So I’m thankful for that.

Check out Eminem speak on his lyrical ability, song structures and more in the full second installment of Zane Lowe’s four part interview below: